Art - Mercury

Artist: Possibly Carl W. Wollenhaupt (made in approximately 1900, a copy in 2000).

The original Mercury statue, which was made from cast concrete on an iron skeleton, was placed in a niche in the old "Børs- og telegrafbygningen" (Stock Exchange and Telegraph Building) between 1896 and 1902. The statue has now been restored and can be found inside the Mercursenteret shopping mall. According to tradition, the artist was Carl W. Wollenhaupt, a stone mason at Nidaros Cathedral, but there is no clear evidence proving he actually made it. If he did not personally carry out the assignment, he may have arranged for the statue to be purchased from Germany. In the 1970s, the statue was removed due to rust damage to the reinforcing iron and placed in storage in the Cathedral's collection of stones. It has now been reborn in soapstone and returned to its niche facing Kongens gate (a street). Erling Refseth from the NDR (Nidaros Cathedral Restoration Workshop) created the copy. In Roman mythology, Mercury was the god of messages and the patron of trade. The sculpture thus fits in well in the shopping mall.